Billy Gunn has offered a candid and pointed assessment of how professional wrestling has changed over the past 30 years — and his critique centers on what he sees as a fundamental shift away from story-driven presentation toward a move-heavy style that prioritizes spectacle over substance. Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Gunn did not hold back on his biggest concern about the modern product.
“I feel it’s all about moves now. It’s just, ‘You want to learn how to wrestle? Okay, I’m going to show you a bunch of moves.’ ‘We have a show tonight. What are you going to do?’ ‘Everything I taught you.’ There’s no structure to it. There’s no sense to it. You’re just doing all the moves that I taught you. So the problem is the people won’t know any different, other than it’s the first time that they see you. But you’re diving out of the ring, you’re landing on your head. You’re getting slammed on the apron for some ungodly reason, which seems to be a thing these days. If they took their time and did them in the middle of the ring where they’re supposed to, they get the same reaction,” Gunn said.
Billy Gunn Says the Old Era Worked Because Storytelling and Crowd Positioning Did the Heavy Lifting Before the Moves
Gunn compared the current approach to the way things worked during his most successful era in the business, noting that character and crowd positioning created the foundation that made in-ring moments land harder. “Back then, there was no moves because everything was structured so good, and the storylines were so good. Stone Cold comes out and the place goes absolutely ballistic. How do you get them out of the ceiling? Oh, you punch him right in his mouth and get him down.” Despite his criticisms, Gunn acknowledged that AEW has produced matches that told great stories within the modern framework, and he remains active on the independent scene through QT Marshall’s 1FW promotion.
